Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born and lived her early life in Manchester, England. When her father, a successful merchant, had a stroke and the American Civil War crippled the city’s economy the impoverished family emigrated to a small rural town in Tennessee. A storyteller since her youth, Frances started to write for an income. The author of more than 40 books, her breakthrough novel came with Little Lord Fauntleroy, which became a bestseller. Her work was compared to that of Charlotte Brontë and Henry James. Unhappily married, and after the death of her son, Lionel, she moved to England in 1890 and rented an estate with several walled gardens. It was in the rose garden, her outdoor studio, that the notion of The Secret Garden was born.